Protector
by cr8vgrl
Summary: A look at Nate and Caitlyn's growing-up years together, cooties and all. Written abstractly for 101 Prompts Challenge. Enjoy!


**A/N: Hey guys! I'm pretty stressed right now, so I did this as kind of a calming exercise. Hope you like it! I'll be getting to my other stories very soon! As usual, I own absolutely nothing. :P**

* * *

This is for Prompts No. 1 (Friends) and 9 (Broken)

**Kindergarten:**

The first time Nate ever saw Caitlyn Gellar was a slight blur in his memory. That was probably because his glasses were somewhere near his knees, broken into sharp, irreplaceable shards and scattered around in the sand.

"What's that matter, loser?" a young boy, a year older than Nate taunted, giving him a push that send him sprawling back into the sandbox. Reflexively, his hand shot out to steady himself as he fell, but connected with the sharp glass instead. A warm liquid spread over his palm, oozing from a deep cut in the center, now clogged with wet sand.

Nate, though the world was slightly foggy, was able to see that it was blood that was smeared all over his hand. His stomach churned, and he struggled not to throw up. The situation was already embarrassing enough. Throwing up all over the bully's shoes would _not_ help matters. "Uh," he started, unsure of whom he should tell that he was quickly losing blood.

"You are such a sissy!" the bully teased, but stayed far enough away from the blood that Nate had a hard time making out anything more than a blurry shape. The bully stepped forward, and Nate tensed, his hand curling around itself, filling the palm with more blood.

Before either one of the boys could make another move, Nate saw a small blur streak out in front of him, tackling the bully to the ground. Though his eyesight was flawed, his hearing was not, and he could easily make out the high-pitched words that came next.

"Don't you _ever_ lay a finger on him or anyone else again, or I'll beat you to a pulp!" The threatening words were no doubt the most graphic this girl's kindergarten mind could come up with, but her small little voice took away from the overall threat. "_Do_ you understand me?" she cried.

The bully whimpered some reply, and the girl pushed him away, coming to kneel next to Nate. "Don't!" he cried when he realized that she was kneeling in the bloody sand. "You'll get my blood all over you!"

The girl, still a blur but getting clearer the longer Nate focused, laughed, and the sound, in Nate's mind, was equivalent to church bells. A perfect high C, according to his perfect pitch mind. "I've been covered in worse," she told him bluntly. She grabbed him by his shoulder and helped him up. "We should get you to a doctor," she said. She scoffed. "Those teachers are so lame, but they'll have to do. Come on."

With the girl supporting most of his weight, Nate allowed her to help him across the playground to where the teachers sat, oblivious to the grave situation at hand. "I'm Nate," he told her, hoping that she would tell him her name.

"I know," she said tartly. "I'm Caitlyn."

"Caitlyn," he whispered, more to himself than to her. What a beautiful name.

From that moment on, Caitlyn Gellar became his protector.

**Grade School:**

Nate Gray glanced over his song, checking each of the notes and humming them softly to make sure that they all blended together in perfect harmony. He reached up reflexively to push his glasses up his nose, but then stopped, his hand in mid-air, realizing that he no longer had glasses. Contacts were wonderful, wonderful inventions, especially when you were the new kid at school and already labeled as "weird."

"Hey," said a voice right next to him, making him jump.

"Ah!" he cried, actually coming off his seat at the lunch table.

Caitlyn Gellar, his best friend, stood next to him, lunch tray in hand, grinning. "Sorry," she said, noticing his reaction.

"No you're not," he said, pretending to be sullen and upset. He scooted over so that she could have some room.

"Thanks," Caitlyn said and plunked her lunch tray onto the table, sitting down and stealing one of Nate's french fries in one swift, dancer-like motion.

He cocked an eyebrow and grinned. "For the seat or the fry?"

Caitlyn smiled back. "Both," she told him. She took a bite of her sandwich and eyed him carefully. He watched as her eyes flashed from his hand, curled around a pencil, to the paper he was writing on, and then linger on his food tray, which hadn't been touched.

"What?" he asked.

Caitlyn looked up at him worriedly. "Why aren't you eating?"

Nate looked at his tray as though it had just appeared. "I guess because writing is more important," he told her slowly. "The notes just come to me, and I have to write them."

"What's it about this time?" Caitlyn asked, her expression telling him plainly that she didn't approve of his nutritional habits.

Nate grinned. "The swings. I finally got on during recess, and it was amazing!" His fourth grade smile and enthusiasm made Caitlyn smile despite her disapproval. He was just so happy at times.

A shadow elongated over Nate's shoulders and a large hand reached down, grabbing the notebook that Nate had been writing in. Both Nate and Caitlyn whirled around to find the bully of this school leering down at them. Nate made a grab for his notebook, but the bully leapt away and ran to the other side of the table, across from the two friends.

"What have we here?" he asked. He glanced down at the notebook and laughed. "You're writing about swings?" he asked disbelievingly. The few friends he had drifted around to watch what would happen next. He scoffed as he flipped through Nate's precious pages, the ones containing his life's work so far. "This isn't worth keeping," he said, and grinned at Nate. "I'll just get rid of it for you."

He made a move to rip the book down the middle, and before Nate or the bully could move another inch, Caitlyn was out of her seat, jumping onto the table, and launching herself at the boy. She knocked him to the ground and dealt him two hard punches to his nose that left him screaming and writhing as she picked up the notebook and turned around to face the entire, shocked school.

In that moment, whether she had cooties or not, Nate Gray fell in love with Caitlyn Gellar. She was standing there, hair a mess, shirt bloodied from the geyser she'd uncovered, with her tennis shoe covered in pasta sauce and cheese from the slice of pizza she'd planted her foot in as she'd lunged across the table, and his heart skipped a beat.

She gave him that I-don't-care-about-anything smile and said sarcastically, "I'm glad you weren't eating that."

That was the last thing she said before she was herded off to the principal's office. Nate saw her the next day, her hand bandaged in a black semi-hard cast. She waved off his concern with another one of her winning smiles and said, "Don't worry. It was worth it."

From that moment, Caitlyn became a closer friend to him, a feat he hadn't deemed possible.

**Junior High:**

Nate was walking along, bobbing his head to the music playing through his CD player, when someone plucked the earbuds out of his ears. "Hey!" he called, swinging around with raised fists to show whoever had tried to mess with him that he would put up a fight before they humiliated him.

At the receiving end of his upraised fists stood Caitlyn, hands raised in comic surrender, an eyebrow cocked as she regarded him with humor. "Hey yourself," she said. He breathed in a sigh of relief that it was only her, and lowered his fists, blushing as he glanced up at her. "Your stance is all wrong," she informed him, and proceeded to show him the proper way to stand.

"Are you _actually_ trying to teach him how to fight?" asked a voice behind them.

Caitlyn and Nate swung around to find the bully of the junior high campus standing in front of them, jerk smirk written all over his face. Nate glanced sideways at Caitlyn and saw her jaws clenched together. The bullies never learned, did they? He opened his mouth to reply, but Caitlyn answered first.

"Are you _actually_ talking to us?" she asked, her voice cutting like a knife

The bully's smile faded slightly, but not for long. "Yeah, I am," he said, stepping closer to Caitlyn, who was a head shorter than he was. "Got a problem with that, Gellar?"

He threw a punch towards Caitlyn's face, but she dropped, swinging her leg out in front of her to knock him to the ground. He hit the ground hard, groaning as he rolled over and tried to stand. Caitlyn stooped next to him and said in a low voice, "If you ever lay a finger on him, I will decapitate you. Do you understand?"

Though it was several years, a whole lot of reading, and a ton of martial arts classes later, Caitlyn's threat reminded Nate of the one that had brought them together back in kindergarten. The bully muttered, "Y-yes," in between groans.

"Good," Caitlyn said, brushing off her jeans as though nothing had ever happened. "I'm glad we're straight in this."

She turned and motioned for Nate to follow her. "I'm sorry," he apologized meekly as they walked through the halls to class, threading their way through the other students that pushed and shoved against them.

"For what?" Caitlyn asked, confused.

"For you always having to fight for me," Nate explained. "I always feel so weak when I watch you, and you've broken a few bones over me. We're too young to be fighting."

Caitlyn smiled and blushed as she looked up at Nate, who was slightly taller than she was. "You don't have to be sorry," she told him. "It just shows how much I care. You're…you're worth it, I guess." Her shy smile said it all. She liked him too!

In that moment, she became his imaginary girlfriend.

**High School:**

They never spoke of their attraction, even after cooties became a myth in their minds. They simply existed together, ignoring the others around them unless someone posed a threat. And that was the way it went on for three years. Nate surpassed everyone in band class, and Caitlyn was never far behind.

Now, the protection was mutual. Caitlyn protected with her fists. Nate protected with his words. While Caitlyn would be happy to deck someone who messed with her or Nate, Nate chose to diplomatically edge his way out before he was forced to use force. _That_ didn't usually end well.

"Idiot," Caitlyn muttered the first time he was involved in a fight, punching his other arm slightly when he winced as she wrapped his broken thumb. "Don't you know never to tuck your thumbs in?" But he saw past her scolding and icy demeanor to the worry and…love that was evident in her expression.

"You never mentioned that," he had teased. "You never got past ragging me about my stance."

She had given a particularly hard pull of the bandage after that comment.

Now, as he sketched a score for the school orchestra to play, Nate couldn't help but glance over at the page nestled under his score sheet. It was one of the many, many fliers scattered around the high school, proclaiming the school's end-of-the-year dance tonight.

He should ask Caitlyn.

But she might say no.

And then he would feel humiliated.

Speaking of Caitlyn, where was she? He checked his watch, suddenly anxious. Her boyfriend (he hated that guy) should have brought her back from lunch by now. He had taken her out to celebrate the completion of their senior year, but they should have been back by now.

"Nate?"

Nate looked up to find his conductor standing there. "Oh, right," he said absently, hastily scrawling the last few notes and handing it over with a small smile. "Do you mind if I go a little early?"

The conductor frowned. "Something wrong with Caitlyn?"

Nate shrugged. "I don't know, but I think so."

His teacher nodded and patted his shoulder. "Go. You've earned it. I'll miss having you in my class, Nathaniel."

Nate blushed, not used to emotional sentiments from his teachers other than reproach over his protectiveness. "Thanks," he managed. "You've been a great teacher."

His conductor nodded his thanks and left Nate to quickly stuff the rest of his school books and papers into his backpack. It didn't matter if his papers became creased. All that mattered was finding Caitlyn.

He looked everywhere for her. In every hallway, in the library, in the cafeteria, in the music room, and he even snuck into the teachers' lounge to make sure that she hadn't ended up there out of sheer today-is-my-last-day-and-there's-nothing-you-can-do-about-it willfulness. She wasn't in there either.

As he passed by the bathrooms on the third floor, he heard a loud sniffle. Startled, Nate paused for a moment, waiting. Sure enough, a sob followed, sounding very much like a D sharp until it trailed off into a cough. Nate closed his eyes and leaned his head against the door. Somehow, he knew that it was Caitlyn in there.

And Caitlyn never cried.

He pushed the door open silently and slid inside, barely recognizing all the drab interior designs of the girls' bathroom as he found his best friend leaning against the far wall, her head in her hands. In that moment, Nate knew that he wanted to protect her more than he ever had before.

Because his heart broke seeing hers break.

Without a word, he crossed over to her and gathered her into his arms. She struggled only long enough to look up at his face, and then she collapsed against him as they both slid to the floor. The sobs came for a long time, never diminishing in their intensity. Nate stroked her hair and pressed small kisses to the top of her head as he rocked her.

"He dumped me," she whispered in between bouts of sobs. "He dumped me."

"Then he's an idiot," Nate told her harshly, his grip on her arms tightening unconsciously. He was going to kill that boy!

They sat there for a long while, not saying anything else.

"Would you like me to go beat him up?" Nate asked.

Caitlyn laughed, but upon seeing his very serious face, she sobered a little and her eyes shone with something that was not tears. "You wouldn't," she told him. "You hate fighting."

Nate looked up at her very calmly and said, "It doesn't matter. I'd do anything for you."

Caitlyn swallowed. Nate swallowed. "Anything?" she asked quietly.

Nate nodded. "Anything."

Caitlyn looked up into his eyes and whispered, "Will you kiss me?"

Nate nodded. "Yes." His hand found the back on her neck and he brought her lips the rest of the way to his, closing his eyes the moment their lips touched. He tried to be gentle, to take it slow, but the moment she relaxed against him and used her arms to pull him closer, he deepened the kiss. Their breaths mingled together, and both forgot the reason that they were currently on the floor of the girls' bathroom. All that mattered was the other person.

"Will you promise not to hurt him," Caitlyn whispered, gasping for breath when she pulled away.

"Yes," Nate said softly, hazily.

"I love you," she whispered again.

"I love you too," he answered honestly, and then grinned. "Ever since you stopped having cooties. Well, actually, I liked you before that."

She laughed, but then admitted, "Me too."

"Good."

"Will you kiss me again?" she asked, a faint blush staining her cheeks, an uncommon reaction from Caitlyn Gellar.

"Yes."

And he did.

As he pulled away, he realized that this was his chance. "Caity?"

"Hmm?"

"Will you go to the dance with me tonight?"

She grinned and pushed a lock of his hair out of his face. "Thought you'd never ask," she whispered. "Yes."

"Good."

"Will you love me forever?" she asked him easily.

"Yes," he told her.

After all, he had always loved her, and had even been her friend during those fatal years of cooties, so why stop now? She was his protector whenever he was broken.

And he was hers.

* * *

**A/N: I really hope you guys liked this!! I had fun writing. Happy Easter, and please review!! :D  
**


End file.
